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What Books Are You Listening To?
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Tressa
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Feb 20, 2013 08:02AM
I never thought about listening to Castle. Hmmmm.
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Checked out A Wrinkle in Time so my son and I could listen to it in the car. This is the second time I've tried to make it past the first two chapters of this book, and I've given up a third time. Maybe if L'Engle herself wasn't reading the story I could have stuck with it. She may be a good writer, but she should not be narrating a story. Her voice, to put it bluntly, is awful on the ears.
There's a lot of authors who shouldn't narrate their work. You'd think it'd be the opposite, though.
This sounds awful because I know it should be a treat for any book lover to hear a story being read by the creator of it, but she had one of those cracky elderly lady voices and about every fifth or six word it sounded like she had suffered a stroked and had difficulty pronouncing the word clearly; it was more often than not kind of muffled. I loved Steve Martin's Shop Girl read by him, and the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns did a great job, and I think I even enjoyed some read by Stephen King, which I wasn't sure I would like. You have to have a commanding voice that's trained like a stage actor's to really squeeze the most out of the words and action. To read a story in a monotone when it calls for inflection on specific phrases just doesn't cut it.
The worst I heard was Keith Richards. He narrated about an hour of his bio and it was horrible. You could tell he was drunk, slurring his words and sometimes impossible to understand. lol Thankfully, he only narrated that hour.King is one of the exceptions. I think that he's a great narrator.
LMAO! Sounds like a treat, as long as it only lasted an hour, though. Maybe the slurring was from him falling out of that coconut tree.
LMAO! Funny you mention that. He talks about that in the book. That's part of the hour he narrates, at the book's end.
I finished listening to We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The narrator was excellent, as was the story. This was only my third audio book. I have been lucky with narrators so far.I picked up and will be starting to listen to Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. I hope the narrator is ok.
Other than the two Shirley Jackson stories narrated by Bernadette Dunn (who did an excellent job), the Raymond Chandler book (Farewell, My Lovely) I listened to was narrated by Elliot Gould. He did a good job as well...but it was weird hearing him spout out a lot of language that is no longer acceptable.
If you ever want to listen to To Kill a Mockingbird, believe it or not, Sissy Spacek does a great job. But there's an earlier version read by woman named Sally Darling. Not sure if she's a southerner but she did a great job.
My son and I are listening to Pippi Longstocking.
Just finished listening to The Warded ManI enjoyed it, and was able to keep track of the story while doing those things that require me to get off my butt and away from the computer ;)
I've begun checking out books on CD from the library to listen to while driving back and forth to work (one way typically takes me twenty minutes or so). My first effort to squeeze more 'reading' in is Jim Butcher's Fool Moon.
I'm listening to Speaks the Nightbird. Great production, from writing to narration, so far. I'm loving it and am so glad I've rediscovered McCammon!
Jason, I thought I saw Hunter post something about that recording getting an audio award.
I wouldn't doubt it. It's pretty darn good!
Charlene wrote: "I finished listening to We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The narrator was excellent, as was the story. This was only my third audio book. I have been lucky with narrators so far.I picked up an..."
Charlene wrote: "I finished listening to We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The narrator was excellent, as was the story. This was only my third audio book. I have been lucky with narrators so far.
I picked up an..."
For Something Wicked, is that an abridged or unabridged version? I use to listn to audiobooks all the time on the commute to school. Where did you get the audiobook?
I actually got it through a customer satisfaction program through my work. It says it's unabridged and it has this cover. (This link is to an audio cassette version. The one I have I can't seem to find at Amazon.)
http://www.amazon.com/Something-Wicke...
Jason wrote: "The worst I heard was Keith Richards. He narrated about an hour of his bio and it was horrible. You could tell he was drunk, slurring his words and sometimes impossible to understand. lol Thankfull..."I had to rewind a couple of times to understand what Richards was saying, lol.
Yeah, me too! It was like listening to a drunk grandfather telling stories only he thinks are funny. lol
I wanted to introduce myself here. I'm an author, most of you know that. You might not know that I'm also CEO of Crossroad Press. One of the things we've done in the last two years is bring out closing in on 300 audiobooks. A LOT of those are horror, from names you will recognized (heck that are probably part of this group). Very soon we'll be putting out The Books of Blood Volume 1 in audio with an all-star narrator cast. I listen to audio whenever I'm driving. Currently, I'm listening to one of my own - but it's different. It's called Intermusings. It's narrated by John Lee - these are all stories I've written over the last 20 years or so with others - Brian Hopkins, Brian Keene, Patricia Lee Macomber, Mark Rainey, Brett Savory, John B. Rosenman, and Richard Rowand. Hearing your OWN work read aloud - particularly by a talented narrator - is a very cool experience.INTERMUSINGSDavid Niall Wilson
One other thing...I believe Mr. Chet Williamson is running around her somewhere. If you have not listened to Chet narrate an audiobook, you should. He's done a lot of them, including Skipp & Spector's The Light at the End, and one of the stories in the upcoming Books of Blood...
I love audio books but I never pay for them. I get them free from the library, as a free podcast, or some place like Libravox (whose readers can sometimes be very amateurish). But that's a great collection of horror on audio, David. Thanks for posting the info.Currently I am about to listen to Scott Sigler's Ancestor and with my son we'll listen to Island of the Blue Dolphins. I heard a little of this book and the reader is excellent. He keeps asking for more Pippi Longstocking audiobooks but I can only find the first one.
Finished listening to Jim Butcher's Fool Moon. Now beginning Robin Lane Fox's Alexander of Macedonia: The World Conquered (research for my next book).
I wanted to mention here...when you see a KDP title up that also has an audio edition (at least one like ours, where we published the eBook AND the audio) most of them are "Whispersync" ready - meaning...for instance... The Light at the End by Skipp & Spector is currently free - and if you own the eBook, you can download the audio from Audible for only $1.99 ... we are fairly unique in that we do audio for most of our books, so a lot of really cheap audio can be had. Just wanted to point it out to those who love audio.
I just listened to Red Dragon narrated by Thomas Harris. The man has an incredibly pleasant Southern drawl. Right now I'm listening to the unabridged Silence of the Lambs narrated by Frank Muller. I prefer Harris' voice but Muller is a fantastic narrator and I'd really recommend either book.
I never thought of listening to Red Dragon. Hmmm.
Clive Barker's The Books of Blood - Volume 1 - Narrated by Dick Hill, Simon Vance, Chris Patton, Chet Williamson, Peter Berkrot, and Jeffrey Kafer - just released at midnight last night.
I will be listening to
shortly. 20hours long. GROAN
I don't listen to audio books anymore. I used to check them out at the library back when I commuted to work and school, but I no longer drive.
I'm listening to G. Wayne Miller's THUNDER RISE - never got to read the book back in the day when it was a HC / pb - The narration was a tiny bit rocky in the first chapter and has smoothed out. Really enjoying it now.Thunder Rise
I downloaded The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Will try listening while working out at the gym. Not sure how that's gonna go, but I'll give it the ole college try.
I listen to a lot of shorts on Libravox. Things like The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Turn of the Screw, by Henry James.And I have to agree with others here, Treasure Island (not a short ;) )is superb to listen to. There are usually different readers/versions of books too. Which is nice.
I listened to "The Monkey's Paw" and Ethan Frome on Libravox and loved the reader. I tried a few others and the voices were awful. But I love "Yellow Wallpaper" and Turn of the Screw, so maybe I'll try those. I'm almost finished listening to Mystic River through my library's Overdrive. The reader is fantastic.
Finished the great Mystic River and have settled on listening to Revolutionary Road. Eh. I may find the plot and the female lead too annoying. I am not much into those feminist anti-housewife/anti-motherhood/smothered-by-macho-husband stories. It sometimes ticks me off when non-suburbia living is epitomized as the be all end all of existence. As if people living in cramped, dirty, noisy cities have it all.
Posted this elsewhere but people reading this may be more interested. "The Flu" and "Fever" by Wayne Simmons is excellent. The authentic regional narration really brings the characters to life and drops the listener into a shamrock showered pint of Guinness.
Stephanie, I've gotten so use to listening to an audio while I'm working in the kitchen, that it's hard for me to clean or cook unless I have one going. Just finished listening to Revolutionary Road and it was fantastic.
Anita Blake got me hooked enough to come back for more, and Kimberly Alexis does a great job reading.
I am listening to
Really good so far and narrated by Simon Vance who always does a great job.
Michael, I started listening to that years ago but had to give up because it's just too big a story for me to concentrate on while listening and doing other things. I prefer to listen to domestic general fiction or classics.
I mostly listen while driving. I agree books that require extra concentration are hard when doing even the most menial of tasks.
Right now I'm listening to Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin. Not thrilled with the narrator.
Right now listening to The Passage by Cronin in the car, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter on my phone.
I bet those are great on audio, Lin. I remember listening to Ron Perlman read The Strain and it was fantastic. I just finished You Came Back and really enjoyed it, and now I'm listening to Someone Knows My Name. Really love the lady's voice.
Help!Of 20 or so books in my "to read" folder none are on audio. Looking for Recs.
Horror Aficionados
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